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Both neuroinflammation, and an increase in microglial cells, have been associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through observation in human subjects as well as in mouse models. A mother having an infection early in pregnancy increases the chances for autism in her child. (Atladottir et al., 2012). This process is known as Maternal Immune Activation (MIA), and the proposed mechanism is that inflammatory signals cross from the mother to child; then in response to increased pro-inflammatory cytokines, microglia within the brain are activated to combat the infection. Microglia are essential to healthy synaptogenesis and neuronal growth, and a change in their signaling early in development has been shown to alter behavior in mouse models that replicate MIA. We use microglial depletion as a therapy to counteract the potentially harmful pro-inflammatory response in the developing mouse brain. Four experimental groups - control, MIA, microglial depleted, and a therapy group (MIA plus microglial depletion)- were run through a comprehensive series of behavioral and electrophysiological assessments. Layer 5 pyramidal cells (L5PNs) were targeted for recording in medial frontal cortex – a mouse cortical area important for cognition and social behavior. L5PNs are a heterogeneous population with cortical and subcortical targeting. Subcortical targeting neurons are thick tufted morphologically, and have an intrinsically bursting spike pattern. Analysis of the intrinsically bursting neurons revealed significant differences between the maternal inflammation and the microglial depletion groups across multiple physiological properties. Therefore, the therapy group had electrophysiological characteristics more consistent with the microglial depleted model than the autism model.

Facilitating opportunities for children and young people to be involved in the decisions made about them fits with current legislation (United Nations, 1989), and has been found to improve motivation and self-esteem (Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008; Griebler and Nowak 2012). The researcher asserts that, due to the nature of their difficulties, people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be prone to lack such opportunities. Examination access arrangements decisions are the focus of the study described in the second paper. The first paper describes a systematic literature review of methods used to elicit the views of students with ASD. The second paper reports a case-based action research project which involves students in organising their examination access arrangements. Participants include three year 7 students and two members of staff across two secondary schools. There is a lack of research which includes the views of those with ASD. Semi-structured interviews seemed to be the most popular data gathering method, but focus groups and electronic diaries have also been used with this group. There was a positive impact of involving students with ASD in organising their access arrangements. Advice was given regarding coping with resource limitations in this area, and provision commonly useful for students with ASD before and during examinations. More research is needed which involves participants with ASD and reflection on the suitability of their methods for this group. Findings from the action research project indicate that involving young people with ASD in deciding on their examination access arrangements can support more comprehensive identification of assessment needs. In order to increase the impact of this research, the findings were disseminated using the strategies outlined to those who may have a role in putting the findings into practice.

La communication en général, et les capacités linguistiques en particulier, constituent de formidables obstacles pour beaucoup d'enfants avec TSA, qui ont du mal à faire connaître leurs idées, sentiments et intentions à autrui. La sémantique lexicale est fondamentale dans le choix des bons mots et la compréhension du monde autour de soi. Dans la recherche sur le Trouble du spectre de l’autisme (TSA), les capacités langagières sont communément mesurées sur la base de la performance sur des tâches qui mesurent les capacités en sémantique lexicale—les connaissances sur la signification des mots. Or, les connaissances scientifiques sur comment les capacités sémantiques lexicales sont liées aux autres aspects du langage dans le TSA sont pauvres. / Communications in general and linguistic abilities in particular, constitute formidable obstacles for many children with ASD, who struggle with making their ideas, feelings and intentions known to others. Lexical semantics is fundamental to choosing the right words, and understanding the surrounding world. In research on ASD, language abilities are very widely measured on the basis of performance on tasks testing lexical semantic abilities—knowledge of the meaning of words. However, very little is known about how lexical semantic abilities are related to other aspects of language in ASD.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to describe parents’ experiences of the Brain Balance Program, as revealed in their online writing. This study provides a description of parents’ experiences in a way that highlights what participating in the program was like, asserts their judgements about this program, describes the impact of the program on the parent and child and describes the parents’ motives for doing the program and motives for writing about the experience. Six online documents were chosen that were information rich and showed a maximum variation of viewpoints. The sample of online documents were written by parents and retrieved from online sources in November, 2012. Basic Qualitative Descriptive research (Merriam, 2009) was used to design the study and qualitative content analysis was used to produce the findings. Content analysis is “a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns” (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005, p. 1278). The findings provide a thick description of parents’ perspectives on their experience of helping their child through a multimodal program for neurobehavioral disorders. Limitations, implications and areas of future research pertaining to the study are discussed. This study can inform parents’ decision making around interventions and provides support for further research in biomedical and cognitive rehabilitative approaches for neurobehavioral disorders.

The aim of this project is to establish whether video self-modelling is an effective approach in decreasing fear responses in children with ASD aged between five and 15 years. Participants were recruited through a flyer that was posted in the Autism New Zealand Canterbury newsletter and the Autism in New Zealand Facebook page. Three participants were recruited who were aged 11 to 12 years, who had a diagnosis of ASD and a fear. This study used a single-case, AB design replicated across the three participants. The participants met with the researcher to discuss their fear and what the study entailed. Baseline measures were obtained and videos were created to depict the child being in the same environment as their feared stimulus. Participants watched their videos for a two-week period then the baseline measures were repeated twice. Two out of the three participants showed some increase in steps achieved in their fear hierarchies. A similar pattern was found with the self-reported levels of fear, one participant showed a decrease in post intervention measure, the second showed variability and the third was not able to complete the intervention due to his extreme fear response. The results of this study reflect some of the literature, which suggest that while VSM can result in rapid learning, in some cases it may not work for all participants and individual differences can account for some of this variability. Due to the variation in the results and individual differences, it is difficult to determine the effects of this type of intervention for fears and phobias in children with ASD. Limitations on this study included the number of participants, as a larger number would have provided more data on the effects of VSM for different participants and the amount of time that was allocated to complete the study.

This study examined the executive functioning skills as students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) entered college. The participants consisted of 95 college students with ASD who attended the Kelly Autism Program (KAP) on Western Kentucky University’s campus in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The individuals in the sample were categorized three groups: individuals who graduated from college, individuals who were still attending college, and individuals who dropped out of college. The results indicated that the executive functioning skills of inhibiting and initiation were statistically significantly different between the three groups and additional skills were significantly different when comparing only the group that graduated from college with the group that dropped out of college.

Abstract Infants with an older sibling diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a twentyfold increase in risk of developing ASD. Deficits in gesture use are among the first signs of impairment in infants later diagnosed with ASD. Typically, infants develop gestures incidentally in the context of social interactions with their parents. However, infants at risk for ASD may not acquire gestures within these natural interactions. The first purpose of this research was to determine whether infants at high risk for ASD show patterns of communicative and play gestures that are delayed and/or different relative to low-risk infants. The second purpose was to compare mothers of infants at risk for ASD with mothers of infants at low risk for ASD in their use of gestures, gesture strategies, and prompts. Seventeen 15-month-old infant-mother dyads were recruited from a longitudinal study of the emergence of autism symptoms in infants with an older sibling with ASD (high risk for ASD, n = 8; low risk for ASD, n = 9). Infant gestures were examined in three contexts: during clinical assessment, during naturalistic play with their mothers, and by parent report. Maternal gestures and gesture-related behaviours were recorded during the play interaction. Infant and maternal gesture behaviours were later coded from video. High-risk infants showed different patterns of gesture use relative to low-risk infants. In clinic and home contexts, high-risk infants: (a) used gestures that were not directed to a communicative partner more often than low-risk infants, and (b) showed specific deficits in the use of deictic and joint attention gestures. In addition, high-risk infants: (a) demonstrated fewer symbolic play acts at home, and (b) had a smaller inventory of communicative and play gestures by parent report. Mothers of high-risk infants used more play gestures, but were otherwise no different in their gesture behaviours from mothers of low-risk infants. This research demonstrated that, at 15 months of age infants at risk for ASD showed delays and differences in gesture use despite receiving typical gestural input from their mothers. The patterns of these deficits may be important in early identification and could inform intervention practices.

Students with ASD may experience challenges in school; however, literature suggests that they should still have access to public education with appropriate services and supports (Burge, Ouellette-Kuntz, Hutchinson & Box, 2008; Levy & Perry, 2008; Mesibov & Shea, 1996; Odom, 2000; Porter, 2008). The purpose of the current study was to examine the views and perceptions of those involved in the transition of students with ASD from IBI to school in Northern Ontario. Using a mixed-methods approach, members of multiple transition teams were asked to complete The Transition Beliefs Inventory (Levy & Perry, 2008) and the Transition Practices Questionnaire (Levy & Perry, 2008) to assess their transition beliefs and experiences. The results of this study suggest that the transition is occurring as outlined by the North region Autism Intervention Program (AIP) and the Connections for Students model and could be used to inform continuous improvement of service and practices.

Abstract Infants with an older sibling diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a twentyfold increase in risk of developing ASD. Deficits in gesture use are among the first signs of impairment in infants later diagnosed with ASD. Typically, infants develop gestures incidentally in the context of social interactions with their parents. However, infants at risk for ASD may not acquire gestures within these natural interactions. The first purpose of this research was to determine whether infants at high risk for ASD show patterns of communicative and play gestures that are delayed and/or different relative to low-risk infants. The second purpose was to compare mothers of infants at risk for ASD with mothers of infants at low risk for ASD in their use of gestures, gesture strategies, and prompts. Seventeen 15-month-old infant-mother dyads were recruited from a longitudinal study of the emergence of autism symptoms in infants with an older sibling with ASD (high risk for ASD, n = 8; low risk for ASD, n = 9). Infant gestures were examined in three contexts: during clinical assessment, during naturalistic play with their mothers, and by parent report. Maternal gestures and gesture-related behaviours were recorded during the play interaction. Infant and maternal gesture behaviours were later coded from video. High-risk infants showed different patterns of gesture use relative to low-risk infants. In clinic and home contexts, high-risk infants: (a) used gestures that were not directed to a communicative partner more often than low-risk infants, and (b) showed specific deficits in the use of deictic and joint attention gestures. In addition, high-risk infants: (a) demonstrated fewer symbolic play acts at home, and (b) had a smaller inventory of communicative and play gestures by parent report. Mothers of high-risk infants used more play gestures, but were otherwise no different in their gesture behaviours from mothers of low-risk infants. This research demonstrated that, at 15 months of age infants at risk for ASD showed delays and differences in gesture use despite receiving typical gestural input from their mothers. The patterns of these deficits may be important in early identification and could inform intervention practices.